“Second Helping”, was the record that contained their biggest hit single and perhaps greatest rock theme tune of all time, ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ was released on 15th April 1974. An answer song to Neil Young’s “Alabama” and “Southern Man”. Skynyrd’sfan base had continued to grow rapidly throughout 1973, largely due to their opening support slot on the Who’s Quadrophenia tour in the United States.Second Helping features Ed King, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington all collaborating with Ronnie Van Zant on the songwriting.
After the success of their debut album, 1973’s Lynyrd Skynyrd (pronounced ‘lĕh-‘nérd ‘skin-‘nérd), the Second Helping LP was recorded chiefly at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. That was apart from that signature hit, which the band laid down in Doraville, Georgia. Recording sessions started in June 1973, a matter of weeks after they had signed off on the one before. Their producer, as with the first album and 1975’s third release Nuthin’ Fancy, was Al Kooper, whose notoriety already stretched back some 15 years to his teenage success with the Royal Teens. Kooper’s association from the mid-1960s with Bob Dylan was augmented by appearances with hundreds of other artists, not to mention his own recordings from 1969 onwards.
Kooper was also one of the musicians on Second Helping, singing and playing piano on two tracks. ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ featured the vocals of Merry Clayton, Clydie King and others. Clayton, famously the powerful female voice of ‘Gimme Shelter,’ was not the only Rolling Stones alumnus on the Skynyrd album. Saxophonist Bobby Keys played on ‘Don’t Ask Me No Questions’ (the first single from the set, before ‘Alabama’) and Skynyrd’s cover of JJ Cale’s ‘Call Me The Breeze.’
Second Helping outdid its predecessor, which had peaked at No. 27 in the US, by peaking at No. 12. It was certified gold by September 1974 and went both platinum and double platinum on the same day in 1987. “A vast improvement over their first album,” ruled Billboard in their original review at the time, “and a tribute to the combination of skill and good taste.”
The Fat Angel Sings 